Support for Windows 10 Anniversary Update and FREE Starter Edition

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Embarcadero Technologies (a division of IDERA), a leading provider of software solutions for application development, today announced support for the Windows 10 Anniversary Update and launched a FREE Starter Edition for Delphi and C++ Builder. Unlike other development tools, code written with RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder for previous editions of Windows can be easily updated to run on the latest version of the Microsoft OS, without being rewritten.

“RAD Studio allows developers to use their existing VCL code while also supporting the latest Windows 10 APIs, including most WinRT APIs”

RAD Studio is the fastest way to develop cross-platform native apps with flexible cloud services and broad IoT connectivity. The solution provides seamless migration of Win32/Win64 API-based applications to Windows 10, and includes extensive support for WinRT integration, as well as new VCL (Visual Component Library) controls for easier support of the Windows 10 user interface and experience. Native VCL controls, such as RelativePanel, ToggleSwitch, SearchBox, SplitView and ActivityIndicator, map common Windows 10 UI elements independently and according to the classic VCL architecture, ensuring RAD Studio applications that employ them run just as smoothly on Windows 7 and Windows 8 systems.

RAD Studio comes with an expansive library of ready visual components, both internally-developed and from an extensive list of partners. Many of these are available for VCL and FireMonkey (FMX) for native use on iOS and Android, enabling developers using RAD Studio to significantly reduce the effort and resources required to deliver robust multi-platform applications.

“RAD Studio allows developers to use their existing VCL code while also supporting the latest Windows 10 APIs, including most WinRT APIs,” said Marco Cantu, product manager at Embarcadero. “This gives customers the best migration path to the latest versions of Windows 10, without having to rewrite legacy code to make their applications look modern and fully integrate with the latest version of Windows.”

For years, Delphi and C++Builder have offered the best and most timely independent support for Windows client application development. Microsoft continues to innovate with a commitment to be even more open by embracing Linux and making its products more accessible. This also creates more opportunities for Embarcadero to engage and grow its customer base with new capabilities.

“We hear a tremendous need to make entry-level development with our tools more accessible. While RAD Studio is one of the least expensive enterprise-grade development platforms, it is still costly for students and independent developers in some markets. We hope that a free Starter Edition helps our passionate community continue to grow and learn,” said Atanas Popov, general manager of Embarcadero. “We know that the commercial value we provide is incredible, and customers will transition to the higher cost SKUs when the time is right.”

With the latest updates of RAD Studio Berlin, developers can convert and package Delphi and C++Builder applications using the APPX format for Windows 10 Anniversary Edition. These tools provide the foundation to convert to Universal Windows Platform applications using the Windows Desktop Bridge—also known as Project Centennial, which Microsoft expects to release in the near future.

Embarcadero builds tools for the world’s most talented software developers, enabling them to deliver secure, scalable enterprise applications faster than any other platforms on the market. In fact, 90 companies in the Fortune 100 and an active community of more than three million users worldwide rely on award-winning products from Embarcadero for their critical applications. To learn more, visit www.embarcadero.com.

Comments

Ján Kolár
Wednesday, 21 September 2016

"For years, Delphi and C++Builder have offered the best and most timely independent support for Windows client application development."
Don't be offended by for me the best Windows development environment is Visual Studio. I have worked with both IDEs quite a few years (C++ Builder ~ 6 years, Visual Studio - 3,5 year professionally and 15 years in my free time). Visual Studio is more stable, more tested, has competitive price. Professional version cost 500$ and you have in this price two or three years of updates and bug fixes. Updates are really updates it means you dont must to reconfigure your IDE again. Already a few years it has support of C++11. When Embarcadero released C++ Builder 10 with new clang C++ compiler it was not usable for real-world projects (because of incompatibility of VCL and RTL with new compiler and very slow compilation - to compile my project with 200k lines took 11x more time (17 minutes !) than in C++ Builder XE4 (92 seconds). The only serious reason I remain using C++ Builder are legacy source codes. It would take enourmous time to convert it to Visual Studio. Every day I must restart the IDE around 10 times because of some bug in compiler, linker, debugger or IDE itself, sometimes several times in hour.

Joseph M8109
Tuesday, 20 September 2016

>Unlike other development tools, code written with RAD Studio, Delphi and C++Builder for previous
>ditions of Windows can be easily updated to run on the latest version of the Microsoft OS,
>without being rewritten.

Please name a language in which the codebase has to be rewritten to run on Windows 10.

Matthew MacGregor
Tuesday, 20 September 2016

QuickBasic

Matthew MacGregor
Tuesday, 20 September 2016

Hi,

Thank you for the free Delphi Starter edition. I think this is a really important step toward getting new people (like me) involved with Delphi. I also want to provide some perspective on why I think a free/community edition is very important.

I am a software engineer and have been aware of Delphi for a long time. On Windows, there are a number of open source applications built with Delphi 7 and earlier. Unfortunately, licensed users are growing few and far between and the projects are put in jeopardy. The high price of entrance to the Delphi product line has been enough to keep interested programmers on the sidelines. OSS Delphi projects gradually decay, and the footprint of Delphi grows smaller (outside of the enterprise). The cost of an updated license means that OSS codebases are never modernized and become less relevant. Porting to Lazarus/Free Pascal sometimes becomes the only viable option, which unfortunately leaves Delphi behind (and can be a painful process).

The lifeblood of any programming language is the developers and every programmer starts as a newbie. With free and popular programming options everywhere, a paid entrance to the Delphi product line puts up an unnecessary barrier. Hobbyists, students (lifelong-learners), enthusiasts, and the technically curious are kept out -- these are the same individuals who often volunteer their time on OSS projects. A vibrant OSS community around a programming language also translates to a healthy workforce for the enterprise.

So it was with great happiness that I checked the Embarcadero site this weekend and found the free Starter Edition. I'm not a Delphi coder, although I've dabbled with Lazarus/Free Pascal in the past. I try to learn (not master) a new programming language every year to keep my mind nimble, and perhaps this will be the year for Delphi/Pascal.

There is an OSS project built with Delphi 7 that I've been watching for a long time. It was dead for a period of years, and then was revived, but now hasn't seen a release for 1.5 years. I briefly volunteered with the project, but it was frustrating to answer support tickets without the option to build and run the project. And finding volunteers was also a problem due to the lack of licensed IDE. Perhaps with the free Starter edition will allow new volunteers to modernize the (15-yo) codebase, keeping it relevant for another 15 years.

My point in all of this is to say thank you for making the Starter edition free. It is feature-limited, but is (almost) perfect for learning and also for updating/maintaining legacy Win32 OSS Delphi apps. This is a hugely important step toward making Delphi accessible to new users. Hopefully this results in a renewed community of programmers and a new crop of projects.